Archives:

Meta

Category: film

So I’m trolling around the web, reading about Sascha Baron Cohen’s latest movie, BrÃ¼no, and I notice something VERY different… Or at the very least, it’s a departure from traditional handling of bad PR, so I’d like to hi-light it..

Deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliyev told a local Kazakhstan news agency that Borat could learn that “women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and jews are free to go to synagogues.” While he doesn’t agree with Borat’s criticism of Kazakhstan, he believes that his fellow countrymen, “must have a sense of humor and respect the creative freedom of others.”

WOW! Really? … Stay with me here:

So we have a public relations officer of the actual Kazakhstani government, addressing someone who doesn’t exist, played and portrayed by someone who does, but for profit, pretends to be other people. (Like other actors.) // Okay- so this is intriguing because we’re witnessing a:

representational process – (defined as):: Any basic cognitive process in which some entity comes to stand for or represent something else.

Baron Cohen, has officially transformed and entered the 3rd dimension… From Baron Cohen, acting as Borat – To an actual flesh and blood personage to be addressed. Unless we’re to expect a fool of Khazak Deputy Minister ..

I wish I had more insight into Aliyev’s commentary, it’s certainly interesting.

Is he trying to playfully extend a welcome to our country, you will find it nice here? (as damage control for the film “Borat?” Is he simply being playful? Also, could he be playing into MGM/Universal’s publicity, and the statement was paid for and prepared by studio execs!

Lots of unanswered questions here, a curious observation though…

The alternative spin-off here is that it’s now a precedent to refer to things that don’t exist as tangible has been set by a public official.. *crickets . . . *

OH WAIT, that’s right – that’s why I don’t write about the financials.. The fiat money doesn’t exist, and is referred to as tangible… EXITING, PROMPTLY, STAGE LEFT!

Hi all – quick post here. Just to let you know I’m helping alpha-test this new video website, which I am finding to be quite fun. Founded in Santa Cruz, one of my favorite places in the area outside of SF itself.

Here’s my latest post – but not for long! conceptualizing and recording 12 second clips is turning out to be more fun than I thought. I’m using the DreamCatcher iPhone video recorder – which may or may not be using parts of the mpeg group’s code.. That part however is up to the developer.

I invite you all to check out my channel that I’m developing thus far, I’m having quite a lot of fun with this.

-Omar

well.. the embed code above doesn’t appear to do much when directly inserted. lets try html view. switching the code to html insertion seems to have made it work – I’ll end this post now, as I’m off to the cutting ball theatre here in SF to see a friend’s play – an exercise in experimental theatre.

The 12 seconds thing feels like twitter for video, – Vitter ? Video Twitter? I’m enjoying Vittering. Hmm. I dunno. Clever acronym thinking cap set to on – we’ll see what it comes up with later.

This is what I recall to be the back/side of the general store – in Randsburg, CA.Â It’s a ghost town by the Kelly Silver Mine, with several lively and friendly occupants. I shot this on Fuji Acros 100 or 1600 Neopan, with my Canon EOS 3 – back in 2002.

“He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else.” As for Flags of Our Fathers, he says, yes, there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, “but they didn’t raise the flag. The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go, ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.”

That’s a Spike Lee quote, from an article here: full story @ defamer.com Spike Lee is talking about Clint Eastwood. That’s not the scope of my article, just a relevant portion. The staging isn’t mentioned anywhere! Historical inaccuracy bothers me. If Spike Lee really wanted to create a stir, he’d remind everybody that photograph was staged. Read on.

The whole thing boils down to a stunt of nationalism. As a photographer, I’ve known for a few years now – that photograph didn’t happen like that. “that photograph.” That photograph was a construction. The embedded journalist knew it’d make an incredible shot, and he was right. They raised the flag a second time, for the photograph that made history as we all know it.

This image was shot by me back in 2002, with my Canon EOS 3 film camera. I have the PB-E2 power booster attachment on the camera as well, which makes it truthfully unstoppable. Truly a rugged camera, and *almost* as good as the 1V. Not nearly as waterproof, or as sturdy though, but well.. have you ever held an EOS 3 with the booster ? It easily weighs 8 pounds. ;] If I recall correctly, this was shot on Fuji Acros 100. Make that NeoPan Acros 100. Enjoy the photograph.

This was photographed in a ghost town, that falls just a few miles outside of the California/Nevada border.Â The town begins after Death Valley National Park ends, essentially 3 miles into Nevada.Â After another mile or two – one finds themselves in the cute, but rather coarse [vs a big city] – town of Beatty, Nevada.Â Beatty is home to about 3,000 people, and if you’ve been there, chime in.Â I’d love to see your coverage of the area.Â Most of mine is lost, however this old file was located the other day, so I’m overjoyed to post it.Â Â I resized this from the 16 megabyte tiff I had created 3 years ago, and uploaded.Â Levels are adjusted to what I’d be able to do in the darkroom.

That brings me to an important point for me, I don’t do anything I couldn’t do on film. with film. Generally.Â It makes working harder, but I feel my work is much stronger for that.Â I’ve always held this opinion.Â Ocasionally I play with digital manipulation, however my work in what one might argue to be “simple black and white,”Â I still find completely stunning and fantastic.Â There’s nothing like it.Â I try to stay true to form.

For example, I don’t even use layers.Â You heard it directly from me.Â Yes, I’m serious.